Disclosure Ref: 10 sent 24.5

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

Number of non disclosure agreements made and reasons since 2014

Request

Please can you process the following questions as a freedom of information request:

A) How many non-disclosure agreements has the authority agreed in each of the calendar years of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017? Please provide individual figures per year. Please also provide reasons for the agreements being agreed where possible (e.g. 2 whistleblower complaints). Please provide the total number of NDAs but also the different types of NDA agreements (e.g. whistleblower complaint/ / sexual harassment complaint etc.). Please make clear if the agreements concern commercial companies rather than employees.

B) Please provide the total amount of financial compensation awarded as part of these agreements for the entirety of this period in £.

Response

In response to question A, please see the attached table which contains details of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) agreed between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and employees; not commercial companies for the years 2014 to 2017.

The data contained within the attached table for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 has been anonymised to protect the identity of those it relates to. It is necessary to anonymise this information to ensure individuals who have faced complaints or allegations of misconduct cannot be identified.

To disclose this type of information would be unfair to the individuals concerned; individuals have a clear and strong expectation that their personal data will be held in confidence and not disclosed to the public under the FOI Act. This is especially true of sensitive personal data as it comprises information that individuals will regard as the most private.

In light of the above, the release of this information would breach the first data protection principle of fairness set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. Further information on the data protection principles is available on the following links:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/1 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/2 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/3

The types of NDAs can be found by pressing the tab entitled the same within the spreadsheet. The reasons for the NDAs are withheld from disclosure under section 40 of the FOI Act as this is sensitive, personal data of the individual/s concerned. Please see the attached section 17 notice which explains this exemption in detail.

Our response to question B is contained within the attached spreadsheet.

Please note the data contained within the spreadsheet should be read in conjunction with the caveats appended to the table.

Information Management Unit 020 3357 0899 IMU@cps.gov.uk